The prior art patent literature includes U.S. Pat. No. 4,360,400 to Davis et al which shows placing of wires between two self-adhesive tapes for separation. However, this machine tapes the wire bundles.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,415,765 to Iwasa et al and U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,977 to Verma are illustrative of taping and shelving individual wires of a bundle. However, descriptive of tooling equipment utilized to accomplish taping.
The present sequencing machine eliminates the need for reidentification by preservation of the original order. The connector assembly station can, e.g. treat the wires sequentially based on its data base containing the original routing order.
Prior to installation, wire bundles are formed to their exact shape and size. A bundle is made by laying individual wires per engineering specifications and routing to a predetermined location on a form board using the specified path.
Each individual wire is identified prior to routing. Once all the wires have been routed, the bundle can then be transferred to a stripping station, connector insertion station, or other data driven stations. For example at an automated connector assembly station each individual wire in a formed bundle must be reidentified by reading individual wire (identification) I.D. number to determine their insertion location.